LOUIE ANDERSON: BIG BABY BOOMER

The Charge

The Case

Louie Anderson: Big Baby Boomer is a short performance film featuring
one of comedian Louie Anderson's standup routines. Anderson is a master at
self-deprecation and manages to tell jokes without resorting to swearing or
gross-out humor. While this special is definitely aimed at the fifty-and-over
crowd, you can feel safe having kids around, even if they will have zero
interest. So much of Anderson's set revolves around being fat, being hungry, and
the medical complications such things lead to that if you are turned off by any
of those this will disappoint you.

I was surprised at how short this was. Clocking in at just under 45 minutes,
it's fast-paced, showing Anderson's adeptness at pacing his material. I found
Big Baby Boomer to be fun to watch, with several moments causing me to
laugh aloud. I wish I could feel justified in recommending a purchase but
without special features and a longer runtime, I just can't do it.

As far as the video goes, either the palette was weird or else Anderson is
really that washed out. There was an abundance of blue and the video quality was
not the best. There was even a moment of blurriness when Anderson first took the
stage. I understand he was only there for three-quarters of an hour, but wasn't
there another angle to substitute? It looked sloppy. All told the video looked a
bit like you'd taped it off the television, not that crisp. It wasn't as much of
an issue considering the genre but it still could have been improved upon. The
sound was a basic Dolby 2.0 mix which was balanced well aside from odd moments
of what I would have sworn was a laugh track. It was serviceable and didn't
really need to be more. I could hear and understand every joke which is what I
wanted the track to do.

There were no special features on this disc.

If you're a fan of Louie Anderson, then you'll want to pick this up. If
you're at all bothered by copious amounts of fat jokes, avoid this like the
plague. If you're on the fence about whether or not the price tag is worth the
short runtime, I recommend a streaming instead of a purchase.